Oxfam has
said the world’s top ten food corporations emit more greenhouse gas each year
than Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway combined. The group has asked for a
shift toward low-carbon agricultural practices.
Deutsche Welle, 20 May 2014
 |
| A shepard tends his flock in front of a factory. |
If the ten
biggest food corporations were a country, it would rank 25th in total
greenhouse gas emissions, according to Oxfam, the aid group confederation.
The
"Big 10," which include household names like Coca-Cola, General
Mills, Kellogg and Nestlé, emit an estimated 263.7 million tons of greenhouse
gases - more than Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway combined.
Farming to
blame for most emissions
Direct
emissions from the companies themselves are responsible for only about 11
percent of this total, while the lion's share of pollution is caused by
agricultural operations in the corporations' supply chains.
Now Oxfam
has asked major food producers to work with their suppliers toward reduce
emissions from farming, saying that supply-chain emissions are not covered by
the carbon reduction targets the companies have set for themselves.
Oxfam said
it expected major food producers could cut their combined emissions by 80
million tons by 2020. Such a reduction would have the same effect as taking
every car in Los Angeles, Beijing, London, and New York off the road.
Agriculture:
a net carbon sink?
Many food
companies already regard climate change as a potential threat to their supply
chains.
Extreme
droughts and floods have reduced agricultural yields in some regions and the
United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently confirmed in
its Fifth Assessment Report that the problem is only expected to get worse.
Today,
agriculture accounts for roughly 25 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
But some
experts maintain that if better practices were to be adopted, agriculture could
become a so-called net sink, rather than a net source, of carbon. In other
words farming could soak up more carbon from the air than it releases.
Some key
innovations that could help improve farming's carbon balance include no-till
farming and soil enrichment.
nz/cc (Oxfam)
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